Barbara Early Receives Chancellor’s Award for Staff for Excellence in Service to the University

Thu, 02/26/2015

The Department of Critical Care Medicine is proud to congratulate Barbara Early on being a recipient of the 2015 Chancellor’s Award for Staff for Excellence in Service to the University. This is the highest award that the University of Pittsburgh grants to staff members in recognition of their outstanding contributions to the University at large.

Early, the clinical research coordinator director for the Multidisciplinary Acute Care Research Organization (MACRO), was nominated by Dr. David Huang and an ad hoc committee of Dr. Clifton Callaway (Emergency Medicine), Dr. Jason Sperry (Surgery and CCM) and several MACRO staff members. In the award letter, Chancellor Patrick Gallagher wrote of Early’s innovations in creating a clinical research internship program to enlist undergraduate students to screen and enroll Emergency Department patients in various research studies for multiple Departments, and for streamlining the participant consent process. Early’s achievements had already been recognized outside the University, as the Association for Clinical Research Professionals invited her to present the program at their Annual Meeting in 2012. Dr. Christopher Ryan of the Department of Psychiatry notes that the program “was so well-received that we were subsequently invited to make other presentations at ACRP regional meetings, as well as to groups on the Pitt Campus.”

“I am very honored to receive this award,” says Early. “It is really a testimony to what our MACRO team as a whole has accomplished. The dedication of our faculty, staff, and student employees is the driving force behind the success of the clinical research internship program.”

Up to five staff members receive the Chancellor’s Award every year. Previous winners have come from a wide range of departments and centers, from across the entire University of Pittsburgh system, including the regional campuses. The Award winners will be announced in the Pitt Chronicle and recognized at an Honors Convocation on Feb. 28, 2015, as well as a reception at the Chancellor’s Residence in May. Early will also have her name inscribed on a plaque in the William Pitt Union, and will receive a cash prize.